Blog

By Katherine Swartz, The Sacramento Bee, June 17, 2021 After more than a year of closures and limited capacity restrictions, gyms and physical fitness centers are up and running again as California’s economy reopens. Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke from an In-Shape Health gym in Bakersfield Wednesday about his new initiative to promote Californians’ overall health: a new advisory council on physical fitness and mental well-being. The advisory council, to be co-chaired by First Partner Jennifer...

By Melissa Montalvo, Cal Matters, June 14, 2021 A Fresno-area politician wants California to prioritize struggling San Joaquin Valley farmworkers in a proposed pilot program that would put cash in the hands of some the state’s impoverished residents. State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Democrat from Sanger, issued a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom last week urging the state to prioritize California’s “displaced, underemployed, or unemployed farmworkers” for the Universal Basic Income pilot program.

By Malavika Kannan, San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 2021 Even before COVID-19 canceled San Francisco’s iconic Pride Parade for the second straight year, gay teen Steven Sutton was finding celebration and solidarity online. On his TikTok account, between videos celebrating gay love and trolling Millennials, the 15-year-old San Mateo high schooler posts raw, vulnerable updates about his daily life and challenges. While Sutton is out to his family, he said he feels most comfortable among...

Please join us for a special webinar highlighting the final release of the ACEs Aware Trauma-Informed Network of Care Roadmap. The Network of Care Roadmap provides practical steps that health care providers, clinics, community-based organizations, and social service agencies can take within their communities to grow cross-sector networks of care and improve collaboration and coordination across systems to prevent, treat, and heal toxic stress. This webinar will: Discuss the purpose of the...

The American Academy of Pediatrics, California Chapter 3 has developed a visual resource adapted from the ACEs Aware Self-Care tool . The handout is print-ready and available in English , Spanish , Amharic , Arabic , Chinese , Farsi and Vietnamese .

In this webinar, we’ll discuss the unique importance of school mental health at this time, what schools can do to support it, and how these efforts can be funded (including accessing ARPA funds). Join experts in school mental health/trauma-informed program design, implementation, and funding streams to explore how schools committed to supporting student wellbeing can find a path that considers both your school capacity and the needs of your students. Learning Outcomes Planning &...

Jun 21, 2021 10:00 AM inPacific Time The goal of this training is to raise the capacity of health care providers to advance trauma-informed communities in support of ACE screening and coordinated prevention and treatment to mitigate the toxic stress response. Through this training, organizational leaders will be able to: 1) gain insight and tools on ACEs, toxic stress, ACE screening, and unique populations experiencing ACEs to assess their local communities, to then - 2) identify and engage...

The circumstances were already tragic. The parents of a three-year-old dying from hydranencephaly, a fatal condition marked by abnormal brain development, had requested one final consultation with a neurosurgeon. Dr. Sharon Cooper , a developmental, behavioral and forensic pediatrician who accompanied them to the appointment, recalled the horror she felt at the words the neurosurgeon, who was White, blithely said to the child’s parents who were Black, when he viewed the CT scan of the...

Touch of Health’s annual scholarship for single mothers with many children In today’s world, it is much easier to have a great income when you have an education degree. In addition, secondary and tertiary education increases the educational attainment of each person being educated, which is good for society. However, because of the need to spend on more necessary things (like taking care of their loved ones’ lives), not everyone can increase their education. Because of this, Touch of Health...

As we look towards the reopening of in-person instruction in the fall, planning and reimagining for a restorative restart to our school systems that emphasizes student and educator mental health is a priority. In addition, there is a windfall of one-time funding coming to districts from federal and local funds for just this purpose. Recently a wise educator said to me, ‘you know, if you want to get to the hearts and minds of school leaders to make changes for the fall you need to do so by...

I can agree with that when it comes to life and especially to life with cancer. But I keep wondering what is hardship anyway? What’s hard? What’s easy? It’s so subjective and varies by person and circumstance. What I do know is I was uncomfortable and unprepared for my PleurX surgery procedure even though it was done at my request. A PleurX is a type of chest tube that can be used at home, allowing me to drain the malignant fluid that keeps accumulating in my right lung due to...

Dear Friends and Allies, California is at a historic intersection of unprecedented new resources for children’s mental and behavioral health, and an opportunity to insist on equity in who receives, delivers, and is paid for children’s mental health services. On June 1st, the state released its draft Request for Proposal (RFP) which we hoped would clearly outline what is expected of Medi-Cal Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), including how they would be held accountable to provide required...